


A Bathtub and a Frog

by mucha



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Amusement Park, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Fluff, Horrible Puns, M/M, no good very bad ideas of wooing, nothing but fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 23:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12468020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mucha/pseuds/mucha
Summary: “So? Who’s he?” Kihyun asks the second Minhyuk gets close enough to hear him whisper.“He’s the new guy,” Minhyuk answers, throwing a quick look over his shoulder. “Gonna work at Fairyland.”“The kiddie rides?” Kihyun asks, furrowing his eyebrows. “Seriously?”“Yeah, and guess what else.”Minhyuk leans against the table, bending down so that his face is on Kihyun’s level.“I’m going to date the heck out of him.”





	A Bathtub and a Frog

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roachprince](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roachprince/gifts).



> HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY JASE, I LOVE YOU MY DUDE AND I HOPE YOU LIKE IT <3

At first Minhyuk was afraid.

It was unusual for him, being afraid. Sure, there were a few things he wasn’t particularly fond of, like strange sounds in the middle of the night or watching horror movies with the lights off, but all in all he never thought of himself as someone who gets scared easily. Even as a kid he knew that monsters weren’t real, and as he grew up, the idea of being afraid seemed more exciting than terrifying.

That is, until he met Hyungwon.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Like with all good things in life, it starts on a lunch break.

Minhyuk is sitting with his coworker, Kihyun, in the food court section of the park, both of them inhaling their hamburgers as fast as possible. One of the perks of being a member of the staff is getting the biggest possible discounts on pretty much everything, but even that has its downsides. Mainly the fact that ever since Minhyuk started working there, he barely ate anything that isn’t either dripping with grease or stuffed with so much sugar it’s a miracle he still has all his teeth.

It’s worth it, though, not only because he gets to save money but also because he simply loves being at the amusement park, even if it’s loud and crowded. He likes watching people around him having fun and having the time of their lives, and once in a while he also gets to enjoy additional perks of his work in the form of very, _very_ attractive guests.

Like the one just on the other side of the food court.

The guy is tall and slim, dressed from head to toe in black, and there’s something about him that seems a little off. He doesn’t look like someone who was dragged here by his family or decided to chill out with his friends. He keeps shifting from one foot to the other, glancing around suspiciously as if he was expecting one of the kids running around him to suddenly turn into a demon from the fiery pits of hell and take a bite of his ankle.  

“Are we doing a photoshoot today?” Minhyuk asks, swallowing down the last bite of his hamburger, his eyes still trained on the guy in black.

“Not that I know of.” Kihyun looks up at him, snatching a handful of fries out of Minhyuk’s plate and shoving them into his mouth. “Why?”

Minhyuk points at the guy, deciding to ignore being robbed of his food for a while.

“Who is that?”

“Huh?” Kihyun glances around. His gaze slides right over the stranger and then back to Minhyuk as if he didn’t even notice the best looking man in the entire park.

Sometimes Minhyuk wondered if Kihyun has any _taste_ at all.

“That guy over there.” Minhyuk waves in the guy’s direction, trying to be subtle and failing miserably. “Is he a model?”

Kihyun finally notices the man Minhyuk is talking about, but he clearly isn’t nearly as impressed.

“Well, I mean…” he tilts his head to the side and shrugs. “I guess he’s handsome?”

“Yeah, but it’s not only that, there’s something about his face…” Minhyuk pauses, searching for the right words. “he has that _mean model look_ , you know?”

“Nope,” Kihyun says. “No idea what the fuck you’re on about. Also,” he adds in a voice that sounds just a little bit hurt. “I have a mean looking face and you’ve never told me that I look like a model.”

Minhyuk ignores him, too preoccupied with staring at the guy to care about his friend’s already huge ego.

“He looks like he’s waiting for something.”

“Probably for you to hit on him and fall in lo— fuck, wait, don’t!”

Minhyuk doesn’t even wait for him to finish his sentence, instead he gets off the bench and marches over to The Guy with a strong resolve to get to the bottom of this. Or _his bottom_ , as his mind helpfully supplies.

He stops right in front of him and summons his most charming smile.

“Hi!” he says brightly, doing a little wave. “Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you were maybe doing a photoshoot somewhere in the park?”

The Guy blinks a few times and then slowly shakes his head.

“So what are you doing here? Are you lost?” Minhyuk asks and apparently his question is ridiculous enough for The Guy to open and close his mouth a few times before speaking up.

“What? No, I work here,” he says, pointing to the tag attached to his t-shirt. _Hyungwon_. Somehow the name fits him perfectly but right now there are more pressing issues on Minhyuk’s mind.

“You work here?” he echoes, furrowing his eyebrows. “You sure?”

The guy ( _Hyungwon_ ) squints at him as if suspecting that Minhyuk was trying to pull a prank on him.

“Well, I signed the papers today so I’m pretty sure, yeah.”

“Oh.” Minhyuk keeps staring at him, the cogs in his head turning. Finally he realizes that he’s being _really creepy_ and he extends his hand towards Hyungwon. “Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Minhyuk and I work here too!”

Hyungwon lets out a sound that is supposed to convey pleasant surprise, something like _ah, it’s nice to meet a coworker so soon_ , but he still doesn’t shake Minhyuk’s hand, looking at it instead. Minhyuk glances down. _Fuck, he forgot about the grease from his french fries_. He giggles and quickly wipes his hand on his pants.

“Right,” he says brightly. “That did not go very well, huh?”

Hyungwon, for the first time since Minhyuk walked up to him, cracks a smile.

Minhyuk is so in love.

He bites on his bottom lip to stop himself from giggling again. Hyungwon is even more handsome when he’s smiling, all soft and pretty and cute and--

“I’m Hyungwon, it’s really great to meet you.”

“Likewise! So, um,” Minhyuk looks around, desperately searching for a way to make their conversation last at least a little longer. “Which part of the park are you going to work at?”

“Fairyland, I think?” Hyungwon says with a small shrug.

“Oh, that’s gonna be a _walk in the park_.” Minhyuk winks, and Hyungwon actually laughs at his pun.

God is on Minhyuk’s side today.

“I’m just waiting for someone… I forgot his name… a big guy? Broad chest, muscles like this?” Hyungwon opens his arms and spreads his legs, trying to make himself wider.

“That’s probably Hyunwoo, he’s a supervisor around here.”

“Oh, yeah!” Hyungwon’s face lights up for a second before a frown scrunches up his features. “He was supposed to show me around but apparently one of the rides stopped working?”

“That happens pretty often,” Minhyuk sighs. “They’re kinda old, so sometimes they get stuck. It’s still really safe, though, and people seem to love the extra adrenaline.”

“Oh,” Hyungwon says in a voice that makes it perfectly clear Minhyuk’s words did not calm him down. “I see.”

“Seriously, nothing to be worried about!” Minhyuk says cheerfully but before he gets to say anything else, his phone starts beeping. He takes it out of his pocket and turns off the alarm before waving the phone at Hyungwon. “Gotta go, my break’s over. It was great to meet you and I hope you’re going to enjoy it here!”

“Thank you.” Hyungwon grins at him. “I’m sure I will.”

If Minhyuk didn’t get stupidly flustered every time a cute guy sent him a smile, he’d swear that Hyungwon was (probably, _hopefully_ ) checking him out when he waddled over back to Kihyun.

“So? Who’s he?” Kihyun asks the second Minhyuk gets close enough to hear him whisper.

“He’s the new guy,” Minhyuk answers, throwing a quick look over his shoulder. “Gonna work at Fairyland.”

“The kiddie rides?” Kihyun asks, furrowing his eyebrows. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, and guess what else.”

Minhyuk leans against the table, bending down so that his face is on Kihyun’s level.

“I’m going to date the heck out of him.”

 

* * *

 

 

So at first Minhyuk was afraid.

He tried to be subtle at first, which according to Kihyun was terrifyingly creepy, because Minhyuk’s idea of subtlety equaled watching Hyungwon from afar, preferably through a pair of binoculars he had once snatched from the exhibition in the cyberpunk area of the park. In Minhyuk’s defense, Hyungwon was simply _adorable_ around children (plus he worked the Enchanted Castle ride where the cars were shaped like oversized everyday objects, which meant that Minhyuk could coo at him trying to fit into the bathtub that doubled as the first car-slash-locomotive of the ride).

With time he grew more and more brave, but unfortunately that didn’t make him any more successful.

One day he decided to win Hyungwon’s heart by offering him food and obviously there was nothing more romantic than cotton candy (pretty much everyone begged to differ, but Minhyuk wasn’t going to listen to his very single friends). He bought the biggest, most pink cotton candy he could find and of course the second he stepped outside the store, the rain started pouring down like someone had turned some goddamn sprinklers on. Minhyuk groaned, lifting the lapel of his jacket to try and shield the cotton candy, and he sprinted towards the fairytale section of the park.

He barely noticed the people in his path, shouting apologies at them only after he nearly bumped into them (or, as was the case with children, bulldozed them into the ground). Even though he ran faster than ever before, by the time he reached Hyungwon, the cotton candy was half melted and he wasn’t going to offend his crush by offering him something that looked half eaten and half puked out.

Having decided that perhaps food wasn’t the best way to go, Minhyuk decided to rely on something that made Hyungwon laugh the first time they met. _Puns_.

The perfect opportunity arrived with the first day of spring, when everyone had to wear something at least vaguely connected to the new season. Minhyuk immediately went for the frog costume, ignoring Kihyun’s snickering, and jogged to the Fairyland. He stopped a few meters away from Hyungwon’s ride and strolled back and forth a few times before turning to him as if something just occurred to him.

“Hey,” he exclaimed. “did you know that if you kiss a frog it turns into a prince?”

“That’s…” Hyungwon paused, looking him up and down. “Amazing.”

 _Ouch_.

 

* * *

 

 

“Ouch.” Hyunwoo inhales sharply after Minhyuk reports the horrible _frog disaster_ back to him, Kihyun and the rest of their group of friends. “That’s rough, buddy.”

Minhyuk sighs, running his fingers through his hair. There’s only one thing he hasn’t tried (other than flat out asking Hyungwon out for a date, but where’s the fun in that) and he’s ready to play his hand.

“It’s like… he doesn’t see that I’m wooing him.”

“Maybe he’s just not interested?”

“But he laughs at my puns. Sometimes,” he adds when Kihyun sends him a _very_ pointed look. “Okay, listen. Listen.” Minhyuk pauses, slowly leaning forward and making sure that everyone is paying attention to him. He has a flair for dramatics, so sue him. “I have a plan.”

At least half of his audience groans and Minhyuk is pretty sure he heard Kihyun mumble something that sounded very much like _oh_ _God_ , _please_ _no_ , but he doesn’t let that lower his spirits.

“It’s a great plan!” he says with a hint of defensiveness in his voice and turns to Hyunwoo. “I need your help, though.”

When Hyunwoo realizes that Minhyuk is talking to him, his eyes get wider and he subconsciously takes a step back.  

“Hyunwoo, be a good friend and—“

“Don’t help him!” Kihyun chimes in.

Minhyuk clicks his tongue, reaching out to slap his hand over Kihyun’s mouth to shut him up. Kihyun ducks just in time for Minhyuk’s palm to smack him across the face but neither of them seems to care.

Minhyuk clasps his hands together and bats his eyelashes.

“Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?” He whines with the cutest pout he can summon.

“Uh, I, um—“ Hyunwoo clears his throat and Kihyun groans somewhere in the background. Everyone knows that their supervisor is weak when it comes to puppy eyes and Minhyuk, being the little brat that he is, has absolutely no trouble taking advantage of it.

“Be my weirdly well-built cupid? You can help the tiny bud of love blossom into something special, something beautiful, something that can possibly last--”

“Alright!” Hyunwoo throws his arms up. “I’ll do it if you stop talking.”

Minhyuk immediately straightens up with a grin.

“Cool,” he announces. “So here’s the plan.”

 

* * *

 

 

 

Something is horribly wrong.

Minhyuk prides himself on being quite emphatic and great at reading people, but when he asked Hyungwon to go ride the Ferris wheel with him, he didn’t expect it to end up like this. Hyungwon seemed happy enough, at least until they actually sat down in the car, and now he seems more like he’s getting ready to jump out, or at least break the railing in half, judging by how tightly he’s gripping it. Maybe he really doesn’t like him. Maybe he actually hates him and is trying to find the strength to tell him to leave him alone.

Fuck.

“This is fun, right? You can see the city lights from here!”

Hyungwon makes a strained sound in the back of his throat and Minhyuk panics even more. He tries to calm himself down, taking a deep breath. The wheel slowly moves forward until they’re right on the very top, and then it… stops.

The sound Hyungwon makes is simply terrifying.

It’s something between a sob and a screech and Minhyuk can feel him trembling right next to him, even through the layers of clothes separating them.

“Hey, are you… are you okay?” he asks finally.

“N-not really.”

“Listen, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable, I’m—“ Minhyuk waves his hand, but the movement only makes Hyungwon yelp. “I just… I think you’re cute, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not that,” Hyungwon cuts him off. He takes a deep breath and mumbles: “I just… don’t really like heights.”

“Wh— wait, you’re afraid of heights?”

Hyungwon barks a short, breathless laugh.

“Scared to death, more like. Why do you think I only work with baby rides?”

Minhyuk blinks a few times.

“Wait, but… you agreed to go on this ride with me?”

That finally makes Hyungwon open his eyes and glance at him.

“Yeah, I was hoping that maybe it’d finally give you the courage to ask me out.”

_Oh._

“Oh,” Minhyuk says. He stays silent for a few seconds, and then adds eloquently: “Ohhh.”

“Yeah,” Hyungwon laughs, still refusing to look anywhere but at Minhyuk’s face.

“Um… I might’ve fucked up,” Minhyuk confesses in a small voice. “I, uh… I asked Hyunwoo to stop the ride for a few minutes once we get to the top. It was supposed to be romantic that way, see.”

“Perfect,” Hyungwon chokes out.

A few seconds of silence pass between them, and then Hyungwon says:

“You know what. I think it’s only fair if you distract me from this mess.”

“You’re right, I could probably think of a few jokes--”

“I was thinking you could maybe do something else with your mouth,” Hyungwon says before leaning over to press his lips against Minhyuk’s.

As it turns out, being afraid can sometimes really be very _exciting_.


End file.
